Jonathan Rea took two top ten finishes in this afternoon’s second round World Superbike championship races at Imola in Italy, both of which were won by Spain’s Carlos Checa.

Rea’s Honda World Superbike team-mate, Hiroshi Aoyama, continued his improvement on the CBR1000RR Fireblade and, in this afternoon’s opening 21-lap race, lapped almost one second faster than his qualifying time.

Aoyama fought his way up from 23rd on the grid to 11th place before grip problems dropped him back to 18th. Meanwhile, technical gremlins forced the Japanese rider out of contention in race two.

With cooler temperatures on race day, both riders opted for the softer rear tyre on offer but struggled for grip after the early laps. Rea opted for a harder tyre in race two, as well as some front end modifications to improve his feeling from the bike. However, some early tussles saw the 25-year-old from Northern Ireland drop to 14th place in the opening laps.

Higher grip levels and the improvements made by his crew to his machine allowed Rea to post much more competitive lap times as he fought his way back up to fifth place at the flag.

The Honda World Superbike Team duo will remain at Imola tomorrow for a one-day official test and then conduct a private two-day test at Assen in the Netherlands which will host round three of the championship on 22 April.

Jonathan Rea – 9th and 5th

Well, it finished better than it started, for sure. In the first race, we flat-out picked the wrong tyre – we didn’t do so much work on the hard tyre in the practices so we were reluctant to go with it. Also, this was the first big temperature change we’d had and it got very cold. But it’s been a bit of a frustrating weekend, to be honest, because our pace here last year was good enough for a win. Our pace this year is the same but there’s two or three guys at the front going faster. All in all, I’m happy to have points on the board in both races, and I’m really pleased with the way I rode in race two. I got messed up with my rhythm in the first laps when some guys put me out at the chicane, but I got my head down and got back to the group and I was able to get to the front of them comfortably at the end. I’m happy with my riding and happy that we have a test here tomorrow and then a two-day test at Assen to try and find the front feeling that I’ve been lacking.


Hiroshi Aoyama – 18th and DNF

It’s been a very difficult weekend for me. It was my first time racing at Imola and, of course, that doesn’t help to set up the bike but, anyhow, we set out to try and find a good feeling. We couldn’t really find one but, in the first race, my pace was not too bad so we could catch up to twelfth position. Starting from 23rd position, that wasn’t so bad. But then the tyre started to drop and I started missing some gears and we ended up in a not very good position. For the second race we changed the engine and we expected a better result. Feeling-wise, it wasn’t so bad, but from the middle of the race, the engine started to slow a little bit and, in the end, it stopped. So, it was not really a happy weekend, but for the next race at Assen I know the track a little bit so I hope we can have a better weekend.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

It’s not been quite what we expected but, considering Jonathan’s crash yesterday, race two especially was a pretty good performance. In race one, with both riders, we had some tyre choice problems. We hoped the new tyre would work in the cooler conditions but it didn’t. In race two, we made a small modification to the front for Jonathan and went with another tyre. He got a little bit caught in a group at the start but from mid-race to the end he showed a really strong performance. Considering his physical condition, we were happy with that. With Hiroshi, race one gave some tyre problems but he improved nine tenths on his qualifying time. In race two he stayed with the same tyre but we’re still in the process of finding a base setting for him. We made another small change and he felt quite good on the bike but then he got a technical problem.

Pole position : 1m46.748s (164.630Km/h) Tom Sykes, Kawasaki
Fastest lap : 1m47.877s (164.721Km/h) Carlos Checa, Ducati


Event results - Round 2 - Race 1

1 Carlos Checa 38m06.264s SPA DUCATI Althea Racing
2 Tom Sykes 3.206 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
3 Leon Haslam 5.593 GBR BMW BMW Motorrad Motosport
4 Max Biaggi 6.519 ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
5 Eugene Laverty 24.662 IR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
6 Marco Melandri 27.261 ITA BMW BMW Motorrad Motosport
7 Joan Lascorz 27.384 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
8 Lorenzo Zanetti 28.299 ITA DUCATI PATA Racing Team
9 Jonathan Rea 34.067 GBR HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
10 Niccolo Canepa 35.724 ITA DUCATI Red Devils Roma
11 Jakub Smrz 36.738 CZE DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
12 Maxime Berger 37.257 ITA DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
13 John Hopkins 50.418 USA SUZUKI Crescent Fixi Suzuki
14 Leandro Mercado 53.623 ARG KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
15 Ayrton Badovini 53.942 ITA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia GOLDBET
16 Brett McCormick 54.139 CAN DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
17 Mark Aitchison 57.944 AUS BMW Grillini Progrea Superbike Team
18 Hiroshi Aoyama 1'06.233 JPN HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
19 David Salom 5 Laps SPA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
20 Michel Fabrizio DNF - 13 Laps ITA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia GOLDBET
21 Davide Giugliano DNF - 13 Laps ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
22 Sylvain Guintoli DNF - 20 Laps FRA DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
23 Chaz Davies DNF - 20 Laps GBR APRILIA ParkinGO MTC Racing
24 Leon Camier DNF GBR SUZUKI Crescent Fixi Suzuki
25 Lorenzo Alfonsi DNF ITA HONDA Team Pro Ride Real Game Honda


Event results - Round 2 - Race 2

1 Carlos Checa 37m57.571s SPA DUCATI Althea Racing
2 Tom Sykes 1.935 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
3 Leon Haslam 2.969 GBR BMW BMW Motorrad Motosport
4 Max Biaggi 3.346 ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
5 Jonathan Rea 18.925 GBR HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
6 Eugene Laverty 21.180 IR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
7 Jakub Smrz 21.392 CZE DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
8 Leon Camier 23.797 GBR SUZUKI Crescent Fixi Suzuki
9 Joan Lascorz 24.219 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
10 Marco Melandri 25.599 ITA BMW BMW Motorrad Motosport
11 Sylvain Guintoli 25.776 FRA DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
12 Maxime Berger 26.004 ITA DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
13 Lorenzo Zanetti 31.172 ITA DUCATI PATA Racing Team
14 Chaz Davies 33.837 GBR APRILIA ParkinGO MTC Racing
15 Ayrton Badovini 45.541 ITA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia GOLDBET
16 Brett McCormick 50.807 CAN DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
17 David Salom 51.083 SPA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
18 Mark Aitchison 57.833 AUS BMW Grillini Progrea Superbike Team
19 Davide Giugliano DNF - 1 Lap ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
20 Niccolo Canepa DNF - 4 Laps ITA DUCATI Red Devils Roma
21 Leandro Mercado DNF - 7 Laps ARG KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
22 Hiroshi Aoyama DNF - 9 Laps JPN HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
23 Lorenzo Alfonsi DNF - 13 Laps ITA HONDA Team Pro Ride Real Game Honda
24 John Hopkins DNF - 17 Laps USA SUZUKI Crescent Fixi Suzuki
25 Michel Fabrizio DNF ITA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia GOLDBET

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